Intro:
57 year old female diagnosed with mild case of UC in 1996, have had regular colonoscopies for the last 10 years, every 1 to 3 years that always show some minor inflammation even when in remission.
Some more about me:
I live on a 5 acre property on an island. Have a grown son in college. Married 33 years. My mom lives in our household with us. I love to garden, landscape and vegetables. I think others would say that I’m a perfectionist, what I do I try to do well. I have really wonderful friends that understand my illness and feel very lucky to have them. People probably wouldn’t describe me as an introvert but I am by definition, enjoy my time alone, cooking, knitting, gardening.
Symptoms:
Currently in remission but just had a flare in September.
New to Eating SCD
I think that UC has made my life less adventurous. Travel becomes difficult as I have limited parameters of comfort, need my own toilet and prefer eating at home over restaurants. I’ve had two GI doctors, not fond of either really. Am now beginning with a third doctor and have hopes that he will be willing to discuss diet and that he is staying informed about current research in fecal transplant. Am following the research presently being done in Canada on UC patients with fecal transplant. Living in the Seattle area I was sad and angry to find that UW Hospital had attempted research just this year and been stopped by the FDA. My family and friends are great and though they may not fully understand how it is to have this terrible illness I feel their support. I suppose that I most worry that the illness will progress or that my health insurance situation could change. I have also been diagnosed with osteoporosis.
New to eating SCD. Seems like a common sense diet and enjoy the learning curve, it does make it more difficult to travel and eat at other peoples homes and restaurants and so I’m struggling a little with that aspect, becoming that person who is difficult, I’ve always eaten healthfully but have never been too fussy and was happy about that. Coffee is the hardest thing to give up, tell me who wants a weak cup of coffee! I haven’t noticed a big difference in my poops yet which aren’t ever well formed and haven’t been since being diagnosed but I plan to try this for two years and see where it gets me with colonoscopy findings, I always have some inflammation since the onset.
I plan to look into the timing of this with my doctor, but I took a lot of antibiotics with sinus infection followed by surgery and I’m not sure how long but shortly after is when I began showing symptoms of UC. When I think about my childhood I may always have had weird gut flora, lots of constipation and stress related diarrhea, IBS? I did consult doctors several times but they were never helpful, just told me to take stool softeners and/or fiber and never mentioned IBS to me.
Medications / Supplements:
Asacol HD 800 mg 3X2 times a day. Rowasa enemas during flares are very helpful. Multi vitamin, calcium with magnesium, vit c, vit d, probiotics by yogourmet, fish oil capsule, estrogen, progesterone.
written by Donna G
submitted in the colitis venting area
57 year old female diagnosed with mild case of UC in 1996, have had regular colonoscopies for the last 10 years
